I thought it was going to Neulevel, because the wife of ICANN Director R.B. was given a cush, well paid, sand-sifting job at Neulevel.

But who knows, it could go to Afilias. I notice during meetings there's plenty of room under the Directors' tables for Afilias reps to get their knees dirty. You've gotta wonder where Stubbs is, when his own chair is empty.

... and by the same token if you don't make your sources known, no-one else will know if you were right. You will have the personal satisfaction of knowing you were right (or otherwise if you were wrong) but you won't be able to overturn an unjust decision. Perhaps.

Afilias, while it has had troubles, has done a fine job dealing with sunrise registrations. In fact, its sunrise procedure has become the model (or the lesson, depending on your view) by which all other sunrise procedures will be judged (and there will be other sunrise procedures at some point). Afilias has been much, much more responsive in dealing with registrations that are clearly in violation of its registry agreement and rules, unlike .name, which continues to do absolutely nothing about squatters like Adrian Miles.

You can't be serious. It is still a helluva mess. Most people probably don't even know that the so-called LR2 (landrush 2) is going on at the moment. LR2 is made up of names that were fraudulently claimed in sunrise. Except that it isn't all .info names that were fraudulently claimed in sunrise, some of those are still being adjudicated, so there may or may not be a LR3.

Meanwhile there are widespread reports (on the ICANN forum that M. Stuart Lynn says has been offtopic on new TLD evaluation but for three posts) of registrars not accepting LR2 applications from the public who will nevertheless submit applications, presumably for certain preferred clients, or for warehousing. What happened to first come, first served?

Only someone watching all this on a regular basis and understanding much of the process (speculators and cybersquatters would be most likely to fit the bill) would have any chance of understanding what is going on, and even some of them seem confused. This isn't a fine job, it's a con job. -g

Malamud and Vixie (Paul, not Peter. I'm Peter) are utopians in this instance. They are the old guard who think that they know better and are counting on ICANN to agree.

They are sadly mistaken.

Nobody more than I would like to see them win the bid. Although I'm not a technical person (I'm what you might call a policy wonk, I believe), I have great respect for both gentlemen.

For the casual observer, therefore, allow me to re-qualify myself.

Unfortunately, if my sources are to be believed, and I do believe them, ICANN is watching out for their own financial interests this time around. They realize that by giving it to Afilias, they not only gain a compliant revenue stream, but also aid in propping up a failing .INFO registry. Two birds, as they do say. The revenue from .ORG is considerable, and ICANN desires a paying source already in line.

Beyond that, by giving it to ISOC, ICANN creates a ready made and rather beholden consensus giving body with many members. Members, I should point out, who belong to ISOC, not ICANN, as ICANN cannot have members as such. Once brought into the fold, the ISOC membership gives ICANN the ability to point, smile, and claim consensus on any future decisions it makes.